Alec Fraser

Earlier today I spent just over four hours and, as it turns out, the better part of 10gig watching the opening keynote of Google's I/O conference (next time, I'm not watching it in 1080p just for better screenshots). I had planned to write an article about it but after a couple more hours I threw in the towel.

Don't get me wrong, there was plenty of stuff in there to write about. There's the fact that Android 4.3 was a no show despite
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When it first launched the promise of Thunderbolt was that you'd be able to hook a bunch of peripherals, including hard drives, a keyboard and mouse and your screen, up to your laptop with a single cable. Two years on however, there are a scant few options for actually doing so.The Matrox DS1 is definitely one of the more promising options out there so I thought I'd take a look.

Matrox have a history of making graphics products for laptop users. Probably their most popular
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Obviously that's an Android handset, but I assure you this review is about using it with an iPhone.

I've always been a huge fan of the original hands free car kit that TomTom released for the iPhone 3GS and 4/4S and it's one of the accessories that I've missed the most since making the switch to the iPhone 5. It's also become my benchmark for handsfree car kits and as such there'll be more than one comparison to it in this review.

Some form of Skype integration, either using a built in or add on webcam, seems to be a stock standard feature on Smart TVs these days. There are, however, far fewer options for those of us with a perfectly good, "dumb" HDTV who want to jump in on the Skype in the living room bandwagon.

To fill that niche Logitech have released the TV Cam HD, which packs a 720p capable wide angle camera with Carl Zeiss optics, four noise cancelling microphones, WiFi (2.4Ghz 802.11g or n), Ethernet and a built in Skype app into a single easy to install device that sits above or below your TV set.

I would like to make it clear up front that I'm by no means a security expert. I just have a healthy paranoia about my online accounts so I've spent some time trying to understand how all these security measure work and why we need them. If you want to dig into this a little more, I'd highly recommend checking out Ars Technica. They often cover this sort of stuff with in depth articles.

Before we dig into how to enable it, I should probably explain what two-step verification is and how it works in general.

As the name implies, two-step verification is a way of verifying your access to a system by authenticating your identity with two different mechanisms. The first is your username and password,
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Much like the iWatch, the rumour of an Apple TV (not the little black hockey puck, but an actual TV) is one that just won't die.

Pundits are convinced that both the living room and the wrist are where Apple will make their next great innovation in hardware. To be honest, I don't care about smart watches. I spend almost every day working on a laptop and haven't worn a watch in years because the buckle scratches the crap out of laptop palm rests.

I am, however, an avid consumer of video games, TV shows and movies so I've devoted a fair amount of thought to why everyone feels that Apple is the elephant in the (living) room.

Unlike most of the pundits out there (professional or amateur) I don't think the hardware is what needs to change and I can't see Apple releasing an actual TV for two reasons:

I'm trying something a little different his week and doing a video review of CarTunes for iOS. With an app like CarTunes, which centres around multitouch music controls, I could (and tried to) write 1500 words about it and still not come close to conveying how easy and fun it is to use. Showing you is much, much easier.

As I said, this is something new for me, so I'd appreciate any feedback on the video review itself as well. Also, please forgive my shitty taste in music

For those of you who're after a bit of a read, I've got a little something extra. I
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That's not me, but if I grew my hair, went ginger and got a job at an Apple store, it very well could be.

Like a number of you, I enjoy nothing more than a shiny new gadget...especially if that gadget is a phone. I'm a phone nerd from way back before the iPhone turned everything into a black gorilla glassed slab. I tried an endless procession of "smart" phone form factors from Nokia, I even considered but never bought some of their more outlandish Zoolander-esque designs. At my worst, I went through
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Here on MacTalk there's been a bit of an upswing in recent months of Android fanboys registering accounts purely to pick fights with the community about iOS, the iPhone and the iPad. As a community we've defended our choices fervently and, in some cases, responded as typical Apple fanboys.

Before I go any further, let me clarify exactly what I mean when I say "fanboy". According to that bastion of lexicography know as Urban Dictionary, a fanboy is:

…an extreme fan or follower of a particular medium or concept, whether it be sports,